Frequently Asked Questions About My EVs

Last updated for significan content 2003.04.13

Things People Ask and Say About My Electric Car

An electric car (a converted Saturn, not a purpose-built electric car) using lead-acid batteries was driven 1,632 km (1,020 miles) in a single 24-hour period in December 1996, using a team of drivers and fast-charge facilities. (Recharge time was approximately 10 minutes between 43 mile excursions. The 24th excursion was in progress at the end of the 24 hour period.) Mid-speed and high-speed charging stations are being installed in parts of the United States now.
In October, 1997, a Solectria Sunrise drove from Boston MA to New York NY at highway speeds on a single charge. The car used nickel-metal-hydride batteries (NiMH) for energy storage, and had power remaining after travelling over 220 miles. Solectria has cars available for sale to the public today.

In May and June 1998, an EV-1 lessee drove his EV-1 from California to Detroit. You can read his story on the Web site that was set up about [Site no longer exists: http://www.ev1.pair.com/] Kris Trexler's trip.

Do you really drive over 100 km without stopping very often? Do you really drive more than 1,600 km in a single day? You do?! Then, you should consider an electric hybrid vehicle. The series hybrid uses an on-board or towed generator set powered by propane, natural gas, ethanol, gasoline or diesel fuel to charge the batteries while the car is running. Chrysler prototypes of a mid-size, five-passenger hybrid boasted fuel economy of about 80 miles per (U.S.) gallon, charging the batteries only from the generator set. The hybrid has the advantages of reduced fuel consumption (and pollution) as the engine can be run at a fixed, optimal speed, which permits the use of a smaller engine when used on long trips, and it can be run as a pure electric for short trips, recharging from conventional outlets and producing no pollution. Toyota has been selling the Prius hybrid, both in Japan and North America. Honda has been selling the Insight hybrid in North America, and is about to introduce the hybrid Civic. These are hybrid electric cars (Prius and Insight) which uses the electric drive to increase fuel economy. It's reduction in pollutants is minimal, as this is an electric car you cannot plug in.

Have you ever driven a bicycle with a generator on one of the wheels to power a headlight? Do you remember how much harder it was to pedal with the generator engaged than it was without? It is this extra workload that the electric car would see to power an extra generator, only about a 1,000 times more energy would be involved. In addition, the extra generator would also be extra weight. In short, there is no free lunch, and no perpetual motion. It has also been suggested that I put larger wheels on the back of the car than the front, that way the car is always going downhill, and using less power. If you have an idea to extend the range of an electric car based on free energy, I can only suggest that you build it, prove that it works, and get very, very rich.

Still, the idea of using a generator has some potential. This is the basis of series hybrids (some kind of generator set keeps the batteries charged), and of regenerative braking. There is a point where extra drag can be beneficial, when you are trying to stop the vehicle. Some electric cars are designed so that the main drive motor can act as a generator when the brakes are applied, putting some energy back into the batteries. A less common approach is to attach a separate generator to the motor shaft, and engage it only when braking. The latter setup may be a bit more efficient, but it adds weight to the vehicle. This results in a small increase in range, because the efficiency of this setup is usually in the order of 50 to 60%, and because the amount of available energy is low. It is some fraction of the energy that is converted to heat by your conventional brakes. Seen another way, it is some fraction of the energy used during your acceleration stage. The energy you use while traveling at a constant speed cannot be recouped; it is used to overcome the drag on the vehicle from tires, drivetrain, air, etc. Braking is the opposite of acceleration from a stop; and it is this acceleration energy that is available to be extracted in regenerative braking. Those who have implemented regenerative braking report range extension in the order of 5 to 7% in real-world driving conditions.

If regenerative braking is a way to get power back into the batteries from a generator mounted on the drivetrain, then think of having a full-time generator as driving with the brakes on all the time. It takes more power to overcome the braking, and ends up as a net loss of energy.

In Ontario, the only incentive I am aware of is that you may qualify for a refund of the 8% provincial sales tax (or a portion of it) when you purchase an electric vehicle, or the parts to convert an existing gasoline or diesel powered vehicle to any alternate fuel, including electric power. The same tax incentive applies to propane, compressed natural gas, methane etc., the incentive is not targeted at electric vehicles.

So far, everywhere I have been able to park and plug-in on a regular basis, I have paid extra to cover the costs of the electricity I use for recharging, including at the parking lot run by the municipal government which subsidizes the use of diesel buses as a pollution-reduction (specifically carbon-dioxide reduction) measure.

Top Ten Reasons to Not Drive an Electric Car